Book Rewind · Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Today’s Book Rewind we are highlighting my review from Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. I originally reviewed this book on my now defunct blog back in September of 2014, and I am excited to repost it today! You can also check out my previous Book Rewind review of the prequel novellas, Assassin’s Blade!

Book Rewind is a meme where we review a backlist title to distinguish reviewed books that are not a new release. We noticed we tend to review almost all new or newly released books and wanted to have a feature to spotlight some older books that we either just read or are just reviewing because we never got around to it, or possibly didn’t blog back then! This meme will be posted on Thursdays as a ‘Throwback Thursday’ kind of deal.

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Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king’s council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her … but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead … quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Review:

[book rating=5/5]*This review was originally published, on my now defunct blog, back in 2014, and has since been edited.

Before I start, I have to say that I have a really hard time getting into fantasy books, therefore I read very few and it takes me longer time than other books. But I saw so many people reading and loving and recommending Throne of Glass and I had to read it and blew everything away, it was one of the most awesome books that I’ve ever read. Celaena Sardothien became a hero of mine and I’ll love her dearly forever.

I love love loved Throne of Glass. It may be a bit slow for me, or I just read it slowly, who knows, but everything else in it made up for it. It was really action packed which kept me on the edge of my seat a lot. I was really rooting for Celaena in everything she did. The worldbuilding was slow but steady and we got to know Rifthold, this part of the world, plus some more from one or another dropped little story from Celaena.

The story followed a young assassin, Celaena’s life from prison and slavery to the king’s castle, to another kind of slavery: to be the prince’s champion in competition, where the main prize is her freedom after years of servitude. It would be an easy deal for her, if it weren’t for the forces beyond comprehension that were trying to prevent her from winning. She faced challenges she never thought she could overcome and met people and creatures who she never would’ve imagined meeting.

“You could rattle the stars,” she whispered. “You could do anything, if only you dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That’s what scares you most.”

I loved Celaena so much. She’s a true survivor, a warrior, a badass assassin and even though she has been through a lot, she never lost her humanity. But beside all that badassery, she still has a softer, gentler, girly side. She’s into fashion and books. She’s just really complex and it would take a lot more to do a character analysis on her than I have space here. Also her character went through a really nice development and I just loved that. She is already my number one favorite female character of all time.

“How long was I asleep?” she whispered. He didn’t respond. “How long was I asleep?” she asked again, and noticed a hint of red in his cheeks. “You were asleep, too?” “Until you began drooling on my shoulder.”

Chaol. My sweet Chaol. Another complex character but we only scratched the surface here. He didn’t reveal up much about himself and was pretty strict most of the time and rarely loosened up. I loved that he at least has a friend, Dorian, because otherwise, it would be so so alone and sad for him. I wish we could’ve seen his emotional side a bit more, but it’s a cruel cruel world they live in. I loved his interactions with both Celaena and Dorian. Can’t wait to see more of his sweet self.

“No. I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material.”

Now Dorian… I don’t know, I wasn’t sold on his love for Celaena. It was sweet, but I felt like Celaena isn’t 100% in it, so that’s why I couldn’t root for them. But despite how I didn’t like him in the beginning, I warmed up to him throughout the book and I can say I even like him now. He turned from a cold and somewhat calculating prince to a charming, artsy and funny friend to Celaena too. He should just find himself a nice girl who isn’t Celaena, because he deserves happiness and I feel like Celaena isn’t his happy end.

“I’m not married,” he said softly, “because I can’t stomach the idea of marrying a woman inferior to me in mind and spirit. It would mean the death of my soul.”

I loved Nehemia too and I never thought she could be on the evil side. She just seemed too nice and so much like Celaena to be bad. She was nice and compassionate, a supporter of the poor but could be like Celaena, a bit ruthless when the time calls for it. I loved the friendship she has with Celaena and loved her protectiveness of the assassin, even though she got to know who Celaena really was.

“With each day he felt the barriers melting. He let them melt. Because of her genuine laugh, because he caught her one afternoon sleeping with her face in the middle of a book, because he knew that she would win.”

I suspected all along who was behind the attacks on the castle. Or at least suspected three of the four people. But I never in my wildest dream could think about who was truly behind them. That was a bit of a shock but actually it made sense and made the book more interesting to have this much of a twist. I’m really curious about what will happen now.

“My name is Celaena Sardothien. But it makes no difference if my name’s Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I’d still beat you, no matter what you call me.”

Although it took me a long time to read this one, but I don’t regret any minute spent on it. I adored this world with it’s characters and the general feel of the book. Sarah J Maas just steal spot to herself on my top favorite authors list and probably will stay there permanently. Her writing is beautiful and flowing, her storytelling in unique and I can’t wait to read her new series. I really can’t wait.

Throne of Glass was a perfect start of a kickass series. Can’t wait to dive into the next one and get to know the characters better!

Welcome to BookCrushin!

Kelly and Christy, two parts of BookCrushin, are passionate book fangirls who read and share books with their closest monthly blog readers. There’s not a YA genre left out between them and they love comics, graphic novels, and some romance and adult fiction, too. From covering local events to booktube interviews to creative features, we feature daily posts alongside regular social media posts.